Guillaume took his first dive 15 years ago in the cold waters of Northern France. Before becoming a dive professional, he was working as a management consultant in Paris. Once he realised that he was spending more time staring at his tropical fish screensaver than preparing Powerpoint presentations, he decided to pack his diving gear and a pair of boardshorts and headed to Thailand.
For over 5 years, he worked as an Instructor on Koh Tao and trained many students from Open Water Diver to Divemaster. As a PADI Course Director, Guillaume has been running the IDCs at Ban’s Diving Resort for the last two years. He also represents us in Save Koh Tao, our local environmental association.
As a true global citizen Natalie has worked in the dive industry since 1997, in Thailand, the Caribbean, Egypt, Australia and Canada. Natalie has managed 5 Star Instructor Development Centre Sunshine Dive Resort (also owned by Bans Diving) since 2006, which offers personalized diver training to smaller groups. Individually, Natalie has had the honour to have certified several thousands of divers but she was most excited when recently the dive centre received was awarded for highest growth in certifications in Asia Pacific. Although the number of people introduced to the underwater world through Sunshine Divers has grown, Natalie’s focus has remained – quality individualized instruction.
Representing the Instructor Koh Tao team and the islands only female Course Director, Natalie is excited to share her unique experience in the industry as well as her enthusiasm, patience, and knowledge.
2003 was the year that Marcel’s life changed forever; it only took 20 minutes on his first Open Water dive to realize that you can have a career in this amazing underwater realm. Every day became a better day from the moment he became a dive professional. He actively pursuit his career to PADI Course Director and is now working full-time teaching the Instructor Development Courses at Ban’s Diving Resort. Marcel is also very actively involved in supporting Project AWARE in many projects to preserve the delicate aquatic world that we call our office.
Last day of the MSDT prep. Digital Underwater Photography at Chumphon Pinnacle. Yesterday we had another great dive inside the HTMS Sattakut wreck.
After successfully passing the IE, our January candidates are now ready for the next step: MSDT prep. Kick off this afternoon in the pool with the Tec Boys. Yeeha!
Congratulations to all the new PADI Instructors on Koh Tao!
IE time! Orientation and written exams today at 1pm. Wishing all the best to every candidate on Koh Tao!
The mock IE is over and evryone passed with flying colors. Now for the real thing tomorrow... Best of success to all.
Are you interested to see what you are doing from day one to the last day of the IDC?
Teaching Tips from the Field - The Undersea Journal First Quarter 2010 article written by three of Ban's Full Time Course Directors
Read recent article about Ban's IDC published in Sport Diver Magazine
INSTRUCTOR KOH TAO DATES 2012
Now Available Here...
Hellen Reece, England
IDC, MSDT and Internship
"I came from a background in Human Resources and now I can manage people on land and under the water. Brilliant training!"
